United States Attractions from Sea to Shining Sea

November 3rd, 2010 by The JetSetter Team | Comments Off on United States Attractions from Sea to Shining Sea

In the midst of the average Jetsetter’s urge to hop on an airplane and head to alluring international destinations sprinkled across the map, stop for a moment and consider that there are still home grown attractions you might not have seen yet. At The Jetsetter Show, we say â€œHip, hip, hooray!â€ for your globe-trotting endeavors but there is more to this country than the largest ball of twine (no disrespect intended to the twiners of Cawker

City, Kansas, and Darwin, Minnesota).

Miami Freedom Tower
Down south in the Sunshine State lies the strangely cosmopolitan and yet Third World city of Miami, depending upon which neighborhood you might stray into. As a United States attraction, the Miami Freedom Tower celebrates a slice of American history entwined with our Cuban neighbors 90 miles away. The Freedom Tower was built in 1925 and served as the administrative headquarters of the Miami Daily News and the Metropolis until 1957. It swerved into an unplanned purpose as an immigration station in 1962 to help process the thousands of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s bloody takeover of that island nation. Now listed on on the National Register of Historic Places, the Freedom Tower would make an excellent winter getaway for a chilled Jetsetter.

Alcatraz Island
This world famous Federal penitentiary once housed some of the most famous American criminals in history during it’s operational run from 1934 to 1963. These days, thousands of tourists make the trip to The Rock via the nation’s first hybrid ferry. Located in San Francisco Bay within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge, a visit to this darkly legendary United States attraction is worth your while. Watch Escape from Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood or The Rock, with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage to get in the mood. Both were filmed on location.

The Gateway Arch
When you’re feeling the urge to abandon more coastal pursuits and get back to the heart of what Midwestern American values are all about, why not set your sights for the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri? Actually, there’s just as much crap in St. Louis as there is anywhere else in the country but the Gateway Arch, as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, is still a pretty cool thing to lay your eyes on. Limber your neck beforehand because it takes quite a tilt backwards to take it all in from the base. At 630 feet tall and wide, the Gateway Arch was completed in 1965 at a cost of $13 million, which works out to about $89 million in today’s dollars. The monument immediately became an iconic symbol of St. Louis and middle America.